Grand Ammjays Fairview Inn

If you are planning to go to Italy, do what I've done - go to Rick Steves site and download his audio tours of Rome, Florence and Venice. These free Italy audio tours are comprised of the most important parts from Rick Steves' Italy guide books.

These audio tours are your private walking tours. You can also listen to them prior to visiting some places and get prepared. If you want a combination of history, architecture and regular life, this is it!

What can you expect to find in these recordings? For now, you can find three major cities in Italy that Rick has visited: Venice, Florence and Rome.

Rick's Venice Audio Tours feature the Grand Canal Cruise, St. Mark's Square, St. Mark's Basilica, and Frari Church. The Florence Audio Tours take you on a tour of the Renaissance Walk, Accademia and Michelangelo's David, and Uffizi Gallery. The Rome Audio Tours are particularly good and include the Colosseum, Roman Forum, St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Trastevere Walk, Jewish Ghetto Walk, Ostia Antica, and Pompeii.

It's easy to get these audio tours. Just use any podcast service (such as iTunes) or use the Rick Steves Audio Europe app. It's probably the best way if you own an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android. I got them onto my iPod Touch right from the RickSteves.com website.

Simply subscribe to Rick Steves' Rome Audio Tours on iTunes, Amazon or the equivalent Android store if you prefer podcasts.

If you don't have an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android device, no problem. You can download the audio tours and listen to the on your mp3 player. Simply download the mp3 files RickSteves.com and transfer to any mp3 player, or play them on your computer.

There are two disadvantages to listening to the audio tours on your mp3 player as opposed to a device like an iPhone. First, you won't see the pictures. But frankly, you won't be missing much because the audio tours actually don't include many pictures; they just have the occasional still photo to illustrate the audio. The second disadvantage is that the chapter breaks and subheadings may not show up. But other than, it will work just fine.